A Place to Hide
by ProcrastinatingPalindrome
Summary: Bolin has a bad habit of burying himself underground when he's embarrassed or upset. After a disastrous first date he does exactly that, and it's up to Mako to dig him out again.


Mako had always known in his gut that the day Bolin started dating would be a dark day indeed. He had tried to prepare himself for the moment his little brother would get interested and insist that he be allowed to go out on his own, but he had never expected it would happen when Bolin was only twelve. He was nowhere near old enough, and Mako hadn't even had a chance to interview the girl Bolin was so smitten with to determine if she was a decent person! It was all going to end badly, he just knew it, but Bolin had spent days singing the praises of Yun, the girl from the local bakery that sold the lotus seed buns he loved almost as much as the pretty face behind the counter. He had pleaded endlessly for Mako to allow him to go on a date, and against his better judgment, Mako had caved in, and even offered a little spending money to fund the venture.

Work at the factory had dragged on even longer than usual, with all the worry weighing down his mind. So many things could go wrong when Bolin was left to his own devices. The café he was planning on taking Yun to was a number of blocks away; what if he got lost? What if he didn't look both ways before crossing the street and got hit by a Satomobile? What if the girl was part of an elaborate conspiracy to lure Bolin away and then kidnap him and sell him into slavery!

Mako very nearly had a heart attack when he returned home late in the afternoon, threw back the quilt that functioned at the door on their makeshift shack and saw to his horror that Bolin wasn't inside. The date should have ended hours ago; Mako had made sure to get every detail of Bolin's date plan beforehand. So where the hell was Bo?

He burst outside, whipping his head around wildly in search of his brother, until his eyes fell on a very suspicious heap of earth nearby. The fear promptly morphed into annoyance. Mako had seen Bolin bury himself enough times to know the signs when he saw it.

With no one around to hear, Mako let out an aggravated growl. It had been years since Bolin had buried himself. It had been a habit since he was old enough to earthbend. He generally only hid underground if he was particularly embarrassed or upset, and the tell-tale mound of dirt made it clear that the date hadn't gone according to plan. And judging by all the disturbed earth around the pile, Bolin had probably buried himself at least four feet deep. _Wonderful._

After a little searching, Mako was able to find an abandoned shovel leaning against the alley wall. With a heavy sigh, he grabbed the handle, drug it back to Bolin's little dirt mountain and got to work digging.

It wasn't entirely necessary to dig Bolin out. Mako had discovered, on the times when Bolin dug himself too deep for his brother to reach him quickly or easily, that Bolin would come out on his own if left long enough. He was smart enough to build himself a decent sized pocket underground, so running out of air wouldn't be an issue unless he stayed down there for a very long time. Really, there was nothing more threatening than earthworms down there, but that wasn't the point. Bolin only ever hid like this when something had upset him. Mako couldn't leave him alone at times like this. It just wasn't right.

Dusk was approaching fast , and Mako's arms were aching fiercely. He had only managed to dig a few feet down, and still no sign of Bolin's usual manmade cavern. He longed to take a rest, the work would become even more troublesome after dark. He was tempted, so very tempted to just give up and let Bolin come out on his own, when his shovel finally sunk into an open space. Mako tried to scramble out of his hole, but too late, the earth under his feet crumbled and send him tumbling down. He landed hard on his knees, no doubt bruising them, but his trouble was rewarded. Bolin sat only a few feet away against the wall of his cave, blinking in confusion. Once again Mako felt his mood shifting dramatically from irritation to concern when he saw by the dim light filtering down from above that his brother's face was streaked with tears.

"Bo?" he said gently, scrambling closer. "What's wrong? Are you hurt?"

Bolin gave a wet sniff and bobbed his head mutely.

Mako's stomach tightened painfully. "Tell me what happened," he growled, trying to keep the protective anger out of his voice. "Who hurt you? What happened?"

Bolin looked down at his knees, hiccupping miserably. "Yu-Yun broke my he-a-art!" he finally wailed.

Mako fixed his brother with a long, hard stare. "Bolin. I'm serious."

"So a-am I! She bro-oke my heart! I-it's very serious!"

He should have expected something like this, really. "So you aren't…really hurt? As in, physically, badly, permanently?"

"I'm ne-never gonna love a-again," Bolin choked, giving Mako a very wounded look.

"Alright, alright," Mako sighed, fishing a mostly clean handkerchief out of his pocket and passing it over. "Blow your nose and tell me what happened."

Bolin obeyed the instruction with a little honk and stared down at the used hanky for a moment, blinking furiously as he struggled to compose himself. "I-I took her out to the Blue Seabeaver, you know, that café near the power plant. A-and she was wearing a new dress, and she looked really pretty, and I told her so, and she said thanks, and we-"

"Get to the point, Bo."

"I am! Let me tell the story! Okay, so I took her to the café, and we talked for a while…I-I mean, I talked a lot, and she was kind of quiet…and then I got us some sodas, and I…I drank mine really fast…and…and…"

"And?" Mako prompted, giving Bolin's knee a comforting pat.

"And…and I _burped_ in front of her!" Bolin cried, dropped his face behind his knees.

Mako raised a skeptical eyebrow. He had never known his brother to get embarrassed about burping before. "Is that it?"

"No! She…sh-she…" He gave a choking little sob. "She said I was _gross_. An-and I said I didn't mean to, but then…she said I was gr-gross anyway, be-because my clothes are dirty and I…" His shoulders heaved as he began to cry in earnest. "I…she said I smell!"

Mako tensed his jaw, feeling anger boiling up his throat. Staying clean was hard on the streets, but they had always done the best they could. The only reliable place they had to bathe and wash their clothes was the lake in the park, and that carried the risk of being caught by the police. Soap was a luxury, and not always one they could afford when times were especially hard. It was no one's fault that they couldn't keep as clean as most kid, and the thought that someone had bullied his brother about it…

"Why the hell did she even agree to go out with you in the first place if she thought all that?" Mako snapped, and then realized it was the wrong thing to say, as Bolin just cried harder. "Bo," he tried again, sympathy overtaking anger, "Bo, come here…"

Bolin didn't resist when Mako wrapped as arm tightly around his shoulders and pulled him over into a half-hug. He only slumped against Mako's side, already calming down a little as he scrubbed as his face with the now soaked handkerchief. "I-I really liked her," he choked sadly, snuffling into the hanky. "She seemed ni-nice at the store, bu-but maybe she was only nice because I was buying stuff." He sniffed again, a pair of tears tracking down his cheeks. "O-or maybe she just…didn't see that my clothes were…d-dirty, or I didn't get close enough for her to tell that I…I…smell."

"You do _not_ smell, Bolin," Mako said firmly, squeezing him tightly. "And your clothes are fine. That Yun doesn't know what she's talking about. You can do much better than a girl like that."

Bolin just hiccupped for a moment before quietly mumbling, "R-really? You think so?"

"Of course! You're great, and someday you'll find a girl who sees that and doesn't care what your clothes look like, or if you burp or anything."

"I don't think there are any girls like that…"

"Hey, you don't know that! I bet you'll find a girl one day who wouldn't mind having burping contests with you."

That finally got a weak laugh out of Bolin. "If I ever find someone like that, I'll marry her."

"Not until you're older," Mako said firmly. "You're already young to be starting dating, like I said before-"

"I know, Mako, I know. I…I don't think I want to go on anymore dates for a while anyway."

Mako sighed and leaned closer to press a kiss to Bolin's forehead. "You don't need to be in a rush. You'll find someone to love you one day, somebody who's in love with everything about you. I know you will. Someone is going to love you one day."


End file.
